GRAND HAVEN — Downtown Grand Haven is set to become a literary epicenter this month, as over 200 New York Times bestselling authors converge for a much-anticipated author event.

The first-ever Third Coast Author & Book Festival — the brainchild of Mike O’Brien, co-owner of The Book Cellar — will take place Saturday, March 22, and is sure to draw attention as some 60 businesses plan to participate in the event. 

O’Brien shares ownership of the bookstore with his wife, Amy, and the festival idea came to him after they hosted a well-attended Summer Author Book Series in 2024. 

O’Brien anticipates the upcoming festival to be a huge success for the authors and the community. He hopes it brings book lovers together and shines a spotlight on all Grand Haven has to offer. 

“It’s opening people up to authors but the authors' eyes to Grand Haven,” he said. “We’ve got the West Coast and East Coast and now we like to position ourselves as the ‘Third Coast.’ We are going to be the biggest authors' festival out there.”

The festival will feature keynote speaker and award-winning author, Abigail Owen, known for her popular series, “Games Gods Play.”

The free festival will kick off from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. when 60 businesses in the downtown area will open their doors for authors to sign and sell their books, and from 7 to 10 p.m. will include a charity event at Central Park Place, the city’s community center. Attendees can meet the authors while enjoying food and a cash bar. 

Tickets are $50 and 100 percent of the funds will go to Grand Haven’s Bluebird Cancer Retreats of West Michigan. Tickets are sold online on the festival’s webpage and only 400 tickets are available.

There will be a silent auction featuring around 100 donated art pieces, some of which the authors made themselves, and some exclusively for the event, O’Brien said.

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“It gives the community a chance to mingle and talk to authors in a totally different setting. Some of the artists do sculpting and painting and they are donating one-of-a-kind pieces that you can buy. You’ll never see anyone else get one. It will be yours and yours only,” O’Brien said. 

O’Brien said the event would not take place if it didn’t have the support of the Grand Haven Main Street Development Authority. 

“This is a dream come true. It’s brought so many people together,” he said. “It’s just wonderful.”

— Heather VanDyke covers northern Ottawa County for the Ottawa News Network. Contact her at newsroom@ottawanewsnetwork.org.